Professional Documents
Culture Documents
RRL1
RRL1
Special Issue: Social Cognition and Self. Citation: El Moghrabi, H. (2015). Acceptance in blame: How
and why we blame the victims of street harassment. Behavioural Sciences Undergraduate Journal, 2(1),
74-83.
Acknowledgements: The BSUJ thanks Dr. Dave Mumby of Concordia University for Associate Editorial
contributions to this article.
Copyright: © 2015 Hanaa El Moghrabi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The use, distribution or reproduction of this
article in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited, a link to the
licence is provided (CC for 4.0), it is indicated whether or not changes were made to the original article,
and other conditions of the BSUJ and the other forums are met.
Abstract
Globally, and on a daily basis, women are subjected to unwanted verbal and/or physical intrusions such as
catcalling, leering, honking, sexually explicit or sexist comments, touching or grabbing, amongst other
actions that are all considered street harassment. This paper is a review of some of the literature available,
which focuses on the psychological and feminist aspects of street harassment and victim blaming through
social, cognitive, intersectional, and economic lenses. Regarding psychological theories, I will examine
reasons why victim blaming happens through the theories of the just-world hypothesis, cognitive
dissonance, and the bystander effect. The feminist theories touch on the basics of objectification and
power dynamics found within gender, which can help us understand why street harassment happens.
Lastly, I will emphasize the importance of starting a conversation about the pervasiveness of street
harassment and victim blaming, and why it is important to know where the blame should be instead of
where it is almost always placed.
Keywords: street harassment, victim blaming, gender-based violence, cognitive effects, feminist theories,
just-world, cognitive dissonance, group-think
Introduction
Street harassment is as pervasive as it is abhorrent and its consequences not only
stigmatize the victims but also leave many of the perpetrators unscathed by the law. Regardless
of gender, race, age, ability and other variables, people are subjected to daily street harassment
by strangers around the world (Hollaback Ottawa, 2014). This makes travelling from point A to
point B incredibly difficult for these people as they are often followed, catcalled, leered at,
grabbed, or touched. All of these behaviours are unwarranted and not asked for in any shape or
form. Further, such behaviour causes the victim to feel unsafe in any environment (Fairchild,
2010). The victims of street harassment tend to be disproportionately blamed rather than the
harassers themselves. As in many societies, the victims were supposedly doing something wrong
(being blamed), whether they are walking by themselves, travelling at night, wearing something
74
VICTIM BLAMING AND STREET HARASSMENT
too tight or short or colourful, or generally generating too much attention to themselves (Stop
Street Harassment National Survey, 2014). It is important to highlight what street harassment is,
what victim blaming is, and how this can be stopped.
Street harassment is unwanted advances, or verbal and/or physical intrusions that cause
the target—the victim—to feel unsafe (Fairchild & Rudman, 2008). The pervasiveness of street
harassment tends not to be seen as detrimental; in fact, it is just seen as complimenting the
passerby. But it is not as simple as that; these seemingly harmless comments feed into a power
dynamic that is seen globally, in which one party has more power over the other party, and thus
the party which has the most power tends to exercise this abuse to the extent that the victim is
treated as though they are not human, but an object (Gannon, 2005). Perpetuating ideas that men
are more powerful over women causes a discrepancy in cognition that excludes the idea that men
and women are equal, but instead that men are more important than women. Street harassment is
gender-based violence, albeit a more insidious one that has not always been an important topic in
everyday life. Indeed, Fairchild & Rudman (2008) contend against the idea that street harassment
is not an important topic, stating that street harassment has long been ignored by the fields of
social sciences and in most feminist literature, but is in dire need of more research and
awareness.
The lack of attention over the years has led to a normalization of street harassment up
until recent years when several individuals have spoken up to spread awareness. Normalization is
when something has become so conditioned to be commonplace and completely desensitized in a
society that it is defined as normal—not deviant—behaviour (Foucault, 1975). In this case, street
harassment is seen as normal behaviour because it has become so commonplace that it has not
been seen as problematic behaviour, until recent years with rising awareness. According to the
Stop Street Harassment National Survey (2014), between 27% - 99% of individuals who took
their survey (n = 2040) were victims of one or more of the following: leering, honking and
whistling, sexist or sexually explicit comment(s), making vulgar gestures, kissing noises,
following, blocking paths, sexual touching or grabbing, masturbating, and assaulting, which all
constitutes misogyny. In light of this problem, I will highlight both psychological and feminist
theories in a social, cognitive, and economic context to illuminate the causes and possible
preventions of street harassment and victim blaming.
2. Psychological Theories
Social cognition plays a large part in street harassment and victim blaming insomuch that
social perceptions such as attitudes, schemas, and inferences, affect how individuals act towards
others (Fiske & Taylor, 1991; Morin, 2014). The perpetrators will act in a particular way when
they are harassing women (e.g., based on past experiences, heuristics, gender expectations), and
the general public will act in a particular way when dealing with the victim. For example, both
perpetrators and the public may have attitudes toward what the victim was wearing and
when/where the victim was walking, or may make use of social scripts perpetuating that the
victim is to blame because the victim got what the victim deserved.
Biased perceptions and attitudes about the harassment are major factors in victim
blaming, such as believing that bad things happen to bad people (Just-world hypothesis; e.g., van
de Boss & Mass, 2009), or shifting blame from the perpetrator to the victim because the victim
must be at fault for his/her actions (victim blaming). These perceptions and attitudes are typically
conditioned responses of stereotypical gender roles, bombardment of skewed media, diffusion of
75
EL MOGHRABI
responsibility, and creating cognitive harmony when cognition becomes erratic (Bennett,
Banyard, & Garnhart, 2014).
76
VICTIM BLAMING AND STREET HARASSMENT
modifiable source (one’s character); behavioural refers to the victim needing to avoid future
negative outcomes, which involves attributions to a modifiable source (one’s behaviour).
Thinking in this manner defies rational thinking because it removes the blame off the true
perpetrator and shifts the blame onto the victim, as though the victim were the real perpetrator,
which is far more deleterious to the victim. This is problematic as the victim should not feel the
need to change behaviours in order to prevent a future attack. However, these discrepancies in
cognition of beliefs and attitudes are invaluable to future research toward the reduction of such
discrepancies and the changing of harmful biased perceptions.
77
EL MOGHRABI
of victim blaming in communities (Banyard, Moynihan & Plante, 2007) and the normalization of
victim blaming and the bystander effect (Planty, 2002).
In the context of street harassment, there is usually little intervening but increased
groupthink (tendency for groups to converge on an attitude), so to speak, insofar that others will
join in with the street harassment. In groupthink, the group becomes concerned with only having
a harmony among themselves instead of the group members being able to make rational
decisions on their own (Janis, 1982). In other words, instead of one person in the group labelling
the harassment as problematic, there is pressure to think alike and discouragement to act against
the group consensus by intervening to stop the harassment.
So far we can see that street harassment is overwhelmingly about the perceptions of
power and masculinity; if individual men in a group do not join in to harass women, their
masculinity will be at question because gender stereotypes are ever-prevalent globally. So the
bystander effect in this case can work in both not intervening but also joining in, in some
capacity, be it encouraging the behaviour or simply watching. These behaviours are dangerous
not only to the victims but also the harassers, to prove their masculinity to their cohorts. The
bystander effect and the just-world hypothesis illustrate why street harassment and victim
blaming is still relevant, because it is enabling the perpetrators to continue harassing. If
witnesses watch, record, join in, or ignore acts of violence, it is safe to say they would do the
same for street harassment.
78
VICTIM BLAMING AND STREET HARASSMENT
2.4. Stereotypes
It is often believed that only women are the victims of street harassment, but according to
the Stop Street Harassment National Survey (2014), 25% of victims are men. Further, the survey
found that 50% of the individuals who took the survey had experienced street harassment by the
age of 17; individuals who identified as LGBTQ+ (those not identifying as heterosexual)
reported a higher frequency of street harassment than their heterosexual counterparts (57%
compared to 37%). Neilson (2000) substantiated that white women and women of color
experience the highest levels of street harassment, but it can affect anyone as illustrated above.
What this means is that street harassment is a frequent situation that people of all races and
gender deal with through no fault of their own.
It is a common belief that street harassment is an isolated and rare issue because of the
infrequency of how often it is reported; on the contrary, the Stop Street Harassment National
Survey (2014) found that 86% of women and 79% of men stated to be harassed on more than one
occasion. Although it may not always be reported to the police, it does not disqualify how
frequent street harassment is. This shows that the issue is not seen as serious by many, which
could feed into why the victims tend not to report or talk about harassment. However, reports
that are being published show that, there is a higher likeliness of changing perceptions of the
pervasive nature of street harassment (Stop Street Harassment National Survey, 2014).
Street harassment has been stereotyped to be viewed as harassment only when older men
of low socioeconomic standing are doing the harassing; however, men –and even a small
percentage of women– regardless of socioeconomic status, have participated in street harassment
(Stop Street Harassment National Survey, 2014). Further, not all street harassment is viewed as
compliments by the perpetrator. For example, there are hateful and derogatory comments that are
made by the perpetrator if, for instance, the target identified as gay or trans, they are more likely
to be harassed differently than heterosexual women. Street harassment is most often done by
men who are not known to the victim (Fairchild & Rudman, 2008). This ties in with the
aforementioned power dynamic, in which the men who are harassing the victims place their
apparent biological power onto that victim, making him/her the object.
3. Feminist Theories
Street harassment is gender-based violence that is normalized in a power dynamic, which
is used in everyday situations. These power dynamics are culturally normalized into societies to
the extent that the topic itself was ignored for several decades, becoming virtually invisible. As
more advocacy and awareness are seeping through mainstream media, the more individuals are
faced with the pervasiveness of street harassment. Although it is a controversial topic, it is
important to treat because the more awareness there is of street harassment and victim blaming
prevalence and implications, the more conditioned bystanders may become to the fact that the
victims are not the ones to blame.
Western culture behaves in an opprobrious manner when exposed to headlines or stories
of sexual violence; the blame is shifted from the predator that caused the crime to the victim who
is being blamed for a myriad of reasons. For most people, the lack of rationality is contributed to
by the just-world hypothesis (van de Boss & Maas, 2009). It is important to note that although
there is a constant reference to western culture perpetuating street harassment and victim
blaming, it is, in fact, found globally and is not only culturally-bound (Hollaback Ottawa, 2014).
79
EL MOGHRABI
80
VICTIM BLAMING AND STREET HARASSMENT
and tend not to be the victims of harassment— or at least not to the same degree as women,
rendering street harassment as less visible than if men were the typical victims.
Fairchild & Rudman (2008) contend that society has rendered women to be looked at and
touched for the entertainment of others (i.e., “benevolent sexism”, p. 340). Additionally, they are
not seen as capable human beings, in fact, women are often defined by their gender, and often
times not credited with being valuable and unique beings. By defining people by their gender,
women are more susceptible to being victims of violence, and men are defined and limited by
their gender roles which can contribute to them acting out in a violent or deviant manner. Similar
to these power dynamics, oppression is the idea that a group of people are subjugated by an
absolutely privileged group who dictates how the subjugated group should act and think.
Women, overwhelmingly in media and in everyday life, are taught how to think and act
especially about how to take comments from men, in which women are taught that any attention
focusing on parts of their body is good attention and defines their worth (Davis, 2002).
4. Personal Experiences
To offer an alternative example on the normalization and complexity of street
harassment, I compare my own personal experience to the aforementioned academic studies. I
have dealt with street harassment since I was 13; in which the first instance I instantly felt an
intrusion of my personal space. As time went on, I felt a confliction between thinking whether
these comments or gestures were compliments or actual harassment, and in the last few years I
have steadily thought these gestures, looks, comments, and leers were inappropriate and uncalled
for. I have had men follow me, intrude in on my personal space, and objectify me, all of which I
thought to myself that perhaps I deserved; I blamed myself for many of these instances because I
thought that I could have prevented them by wearing something else or not walking alone at
night or modifying my behaviour in some way to prevent harassment. In essence, instead of
realizing that it was not my fault, and that the fault was with the people who chose to harass me,
I blamed myself.
81
EL MOGHRABI
education on this issue to remind people of its pervasiveness and consequences to eventually
decrease street harassment and violence.
Conclusion
Overall, patriarchal rule and the bombardment of media messages has conditioned us to
think a certain way about the roles men and women are given and how they should assess and act
in different situations. Cultures globally normalize abhorrent acts and blame victims, which
seems backwards, but is very prevalent. Davis (2002) makes an invaluable point about the
inconsequential views of street harassment: “First, because street harassment has been
trivialized, women do not talk about it and are thus silenced” (p. 216). Further, Davis divulges
that when women do want to open up about street harassment they are faced with doubt because
it has become incredibly trivialized, thus no conversations are started. Lastly, when women
repress the harm of street harassment, their perceptions can transform into self-blame, self-harm,
or learning to accept the harassment as compliments (Davis, 2002).
This process of conditioning, normalization, silencing, biased perceptions, self-blame,
harm, and violence reinforces the need to address the invisibility of street harassment and its
effects. In such a manner, education, awareness, and further research is the best path to tackle
this issue, to illuminate how unsafe it makes the victims feel, and how important it is for mass
media to highlight the consequences and myths harassers perpetuate. Further, beliefs that leering,
touching, and grabbing are forms of complimenting adds to the perpetuation of this process,
another place where education would be essential. Indeed, if these beliefs, perceptions, and
attitudes were compliments, they would not be seen as harassment and would not have such
harmful consequences.
References
Banyard, V. L., Moynihan, M. M., & Plante, E. G. (2007). Sexual violence prevention through bystander
education: An experimental evaluation. Journal of Community Psychology, 35(4), 463-481.
Banyard, V. L. (2011). Who will help prevent sexual violence: Creating an ecological model of bystander
intervention. Psychology of Violence, 1216-229.
Bennett, S., Banyard, V. L., & Garnhart, L. (2014). To act or not to act, that is the question? Barriers and
facilitators of bystander intervention. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 29(3), 476-496.
Burt, M. R. (1980). Cultural myths and supports for rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
38(2), 217-230.
Daily Mail (2013). Two attackers in horrific homecoming dance gang rape sentenced to decades behind
bars as victim forgives them because she ‘deserves to be at peace.’ Retrieved November 23, 2014
from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2395396/Richmond-homecoming-dance-gang-
rape-attackers-sentenced-decades-bars.html
Darley, J. M., & Latane, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 8(4), 377-383.
Davis, D. E. (2002). The harm that has no name: Street harassment, embodiment, and African American
women. Gender Struggles: Practical Approaches to Contemporary Feminism, 214-225.
Fairchild, K., & Rudman, L.A. (2008). Everyday stranger harassment and women’s objectification. Social
Justice Research, 21(3), 338-357.
Fairchild, K. (2010). Context effects on women’s perceptions of stranger harassment. Sexuality &
Culture, 14(3), 191-216.
Festinger, L. (1962). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Vol. 2). Stanford University Press.
Fiske, S. T., & Taylor, S. E. (Eds.). (1991). Social cognition. NY: McGraw-Hill.
Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. Random House LLC.
Gannon, L. R. (2005). Women and aging: Transcending the myths. Routledge.
82
VICTIM BLAMING AND STREET HARASSMENT
Gurfinkiel, M. (2006). Tale of Torture and Murder Horrifies the Whole of France. Retrieved November
23,_2014,_from_http://www.nysun.com/foreign/tale-of-torture-and-murder-horrifies-the-
whole/27948/
Janis, I. L. (1982). Groupthink: Psychological studies of policy decisions and fiascoes. 2nd ed., p. 349.
Boston: Houghton Miffin.
Janoff-Bulman, R. (1979). Characterological versus behavioral self-blame: inquiries into depression and
rape. Journal of Personality and Social psychology, 37(10), 1798-1810.
Lacan, J. (1973). Four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis. New York: WW Norton & Co.
Lerner, M. J., & Simmons, C. H. (1966). Observer's reaction to the" innocent victim": compassion or
rejection? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4(2), 203-210.
Lohr, D. (2014). Death of Innocence – The Murder of Young Shanda Sharer. Retrieved November 23,
2014 from http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/young/shanda_sharer/1.html
Macmillan, R., Nierobisz, A., & Welsh, S. (2000). Experiencing the streets: Harassment and perceptions
of safety among women. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 37(3), 306-322.
Malle, B. F., Guglielmo, S., & Monroe, A. E. (2014). A theory of blame. Psychological Inquiry, 25(2),
147-186.
Morin, A. (2014). Impression Formation & Management [pdf]. Retrieved November 20, 2014 from
http://www2.mtroyal.ab.ca/~amorin/Impression.pdf
Morin, A. (2014). Introduction to Social Cognition [pdf]. Retrieved November 20, 2014 from
http://www2.mtroyal.ab.ca/~amorin/IntroSC.pdf
Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. Screen, 16(3), 6-18.
Nielsen, L.B. (2000). Situating legal consciousness: Experiences and attitudes of ordinary citizens about
law and street harassment. Law & Society Review, 334(4), 1055-1090.
Ottawa Hollaback! (2014). Top Ten Myths of Street Harassment. Retrieved November 23, 2014 from
http://ottawa.ihollaback.org/top-ten-myths-of-street-harassment/
Planty, M. (2002).Third-party involvement in violent crime, 1993-99. US Department of Justice, Office of
Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Saguy, T., Quinn, D. M., Dovidio, J. F., & Pratto, F. (2010). Interacting like a Body Objectification can
Lead Women to narrow their Presence in Social Interactions. Psychological Science, 21(2), 178-
182.
Stop Street Harassment National Survey. (2014). Retrieved October 30, 2014 from
http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/resources/statistics/sshstudies/
van den Bos, K., & Maas, M. (2009). On the psychology of the belief in a just world: Exploring
experiential and rationalistic paths to victim blaming. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,
35(12), 1567-1578.
83